Mozart La flûte enchantée opera to a libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. This is a French-language version of Die Zauberflöte. Directed 2020 by Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek at the Château de Versailles. Stars Florie Valiquette (Pamina), Mathias Vidal (Tamino), Marc Scoffoni (Papageno), Lisa Mostin (The Queen of the Night), Tomislav Lavoie (Sarastro), Pauline Feracci (Papagena), Olivier Trommenschlager (Monostatos), Suzanne Jerosme (First Lady), Marie Gautrot (Second Lady), Mélodie Ruvio (Third Lady), Matthieu Lecroart (The Speaker), Matthieu Chapuis (First Priest, Man in Armor), and Jean-Christophe Lancièce (Second Priest, Man in Armor). Also features acrobats Antoine Hélou, Alex Sander Dos Santos, Sayaka Kasuya, Mathieu Hibon, Iris Garabedian, and Elvis Pisicchio as well as children Tanina Laoues, Emma De La Selle, and Garance Laporte Duriez. Hervé Niquet conducts Le Concert Spirituel. Set and lighting design by Cécile Roussat and Julien Lubek; costume design by Sylvie Skinazi; stage set assistant was Élodie Moet. Sung in French. Please note that the title also includes a DVD and CD version along with the Blu-ray. Released 2021, disc has 5.1 dts-HD Master Audio sound. Grade: NA
It appears this production has played in several French-language opera houses in recent years in an attempt to translate the German singspiel (which was immediately popular with the German-speaking public of Mozart’s time) into something immediately accessible to French-speaking audiences today. Probably this Versailles treatment is the most elaborate and impressive version yet of this. We haven’t found any review of this in English, but we did pick up a few comments in French and Italian. It appears this show cleans up some anachronisms from German libretto and introduces up-to-date touches to the always impressive visual aspects of this opera. If you know the German version well, you will probably find this intriguing while keeping you on your toes. We also assume that the casting was aimed at singers with great French diction, so this might offer a French lesson.
This was reviewed by Richard Wigmore, who says the production “mingles childlike innocence with surreal whimsy. . . but for all its quirky, busy charm it inevitably underplays the opera’s humanity and its central message of enlightenment and reconciliation.” See the July 2021 Gramophone at 82-83. He also warns that style of the production overwhelms the humor that is so important in the classic German version. Finally, he finds little to praise enthusiastically in the singing or the orchestra. So this would seem to be a curiosity piece that might be especially welcome to French speakers or collectors who already have more than enough versions of this opera sung in German.
Here’s a clip from the Château de Versailles showing you what to expect from the fairy-tale designs:
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